Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov

MOSCOW, October 3. /TASS/. Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov and his Cambodian counterpart Prak Sokhon will discuss on Monday boosting cooperation in different spheres, coordination in the framework of UN and security issues in the Asia Pacific Region.

According to the Russian Foreign Ministry, Moscow notes the progressive development of bilateral relations and expansion of the political dialogue. In 2016, Russia and Cambodia celebrate the 60th anniversary of establishing diplomatic relations. "During talks on October 3, the ministers will consider the current state and prospects for boosting cooperation in different spheres with an emphasis on the agreements reached at the highest level over the last years, and will compare their positions of international and regional matters," the foreign ministry said.

An important part of Russian-Cambodian relations is coordination of efforts in the framework of UN and other multilateral organizations, the ministry noted. "At the basis is equal or similar positions on most relevant issues on the international agenda, first of all on issues of forming a new architecture of security and cooperation in the Asia Pacific," the foreign ministry stressed. "New prospects for broadening cooperation opened after Cambodia became a dialogue partner of the Shanghai Cooperation Organization (SCO). In May the Cambodian government also signed a memorandum on understanding with the Eurasian Economic Commission," the ministry noted.

Successes in bilateral trade

Russia and Cambodia assign great importance to broadening trade, economic and investment cooperation. Moscow noted the growth of bilateral trade turnover this year. "In January-July, the trade turnover between Russia and Cambodia reached $78.7 million, thus growing by 34.5% in comparison with the same period in 2015. Export grew by 246.2% to $4.4 million (due to deliveries of ground transportation), import - by 29.8% to $74.3 million (mostly textiles)," the foreign ministry said.

The ministry also noted the potential for cooperation in energy, including nuclear energy, in extraction and processing of mineral resources, in agriculture and transport.

In the humanitarian sphere, priority attention is paid to facilitating educational exchanges. "In total, over 8,000 Cambodians studies at USSR/Russian universities. Eighty Cambodian citizens are currently studying at public universities of our country on Russian state scholarships," the ministry said adding that "Russian language lesson have been organized at the Russian Center for Science and Culture in Phnom Penh."

Another promising area of cooperation is tourism. Nearly 90,000 Russian tourists visited Cambodia last year. "The implementation of the inter-ministerial program of joint actions in the sphere of tourism for 2015-2017 signed in Moscow in March 2015, as well as the agreement on air service reached in Phnom Penh in November 2015, should facilitate the growth of bilateral tourist flows," the ministry stressed.

Meeting of co-chairs

On October 4, Cambodian Foreign Minister Prak Sokhon will take part in the meeting of co-chairs of the Inter-Governmental Russian-Cambodian Commission on Trade-Economic and Schientific-Technological Cooperation. Minister of Mass Communications Nikolay Nikiforov will chair the commission from the Russian side.

At the meeting, the participants will discuss the results of the commission’s 9th session held in Phnom Penh in March and consider the program of activities for its next session.